DC2: A PREVIOUS PAST
by The Several
Summary: [CHAPTER 3 UP!] The backstory behind Dark Cloud 2, involving Max's parents: Gerald and Elena! From start to finish, the backstory of Dark Cloud 2... Review please!
1. A Defined Past

**DC2: A PREVIOUS PAST**

A _Dark Cloud 2_ Fanfic

**Chapter 1: A Defined Past----**

By The Several

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**The Several:** _Finally, a fanfic about the backgrounds of Dark Cloud 2! Of course, I invented this, but it's a pretty wild guess._

_This story will tell a lot of major backgrounds about Max's parents, Elena and Gerald. Like how they met, what happened to the world, how the previous Atlamillia owners got their Atlamillia, how Elena left Gerald to return back to the future, and how the town was shut down from the outside world._

And now, the story begins…

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"_Son… Take this…"_

"_Father… What is it?…"_

"Hello, dad! Me and Monica were just…"

"_This… is an item… an important stone that has been passed down through the family line… A stone that has been the start of wars and devastation throughout the world… Take it… and take good care of it…"_

"_Y-Yes, father…"_

"…Dad? Hey, dad, you okay?"

"_Son… I am living on borrowed time… I'm sorry for leaving you at such an early age…"_

"_Dad, no!…"_

"_Take good care of the stone… Gerald…"_

"Dad?" said Max, his face so close to his father's that Gerald was shocked the moment he came to. He sees Max and that new girl Monica looking at him rather curiously.

"Whoa… You scared me a bit there, Max," said Gerald with a sign of relief.

"Dad, you were out in space for a while there… You okay?"

"Yeah…" said Gerald with a sigh. "I was just… remembering the day my own father gave me the Atlamillia… and the days that followed when my whole life changed…"

"…When I met your mother."

"Oh! That's right, Mr. Gerald!" said Monica with an exclamation to Max's father. "I was curious… How did you and Max's mother meet anyway? She's from the future, right?"

"Yeah… You never told me about how you met mom either, dad… or when she left…"

"Max, I…" Gerald was lost in words as his son looked to the ground with the sadness of his mother's leaving. Ever since Max found out that his mother was from the future, he has lost all hope that they would be together as a family again. Then now, maybe itwas time to tell his son about what really happened.

"Okay… Go grab a seat, and I'll tell you what happened. It's about time you learned everything that happened about your mother's past…"

"…and our conflicts together."

Gerald takes a nearby seat as Max and Monica did the same. Gerald huffs a breath, and begins to tell his sad tale.

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Gerald came out of his mansion in the small mining town of Palm Brinks. A young man of about 16, his father's death had come very sudden to him. And what's the weirdest part was… his father handed him a strange stone on his deathbed.

"He called it… What was it? The Atlamillia or something?" He then looked at the piece of red smooth stone, which was attached to a gold compass-container and a gold chain.

He puts it around his neck and admires it again. "I guess you wear it like a necklace… What's so special about this stone anyway?"

He shakes his head and tried not to think so hard. He wasn't the brightest lad, and figuring things out wasn't his best skill. But he knew the tricks of the trade, as his father had taught him when he was still alive. He was a great young businessman who knew how to take care of himself.

He had to, if he wanted to survive.

He remembers his father going on daily trips outside of Palm Brinks. The resorts at Veniccio, the grand library at the foot of the great tree Jurak, the Gundorada factories and mines that his father mostly owned. Although his dad never had time for him, he knew that he loved him very much, and that whatever this stone meant, it was worth giving to his one and only son.

Gerald clenched the Atlamillia. "I will protect it, father… on my life, I WILL protect it. For your sake and memory..."

Gerald tried to cheer himself up by going around town. He passes by the main street, and sees familiar friends.

"Hi, Gerald!" greeted a young maiden from his side.

"Hi, Polly!" he greeted back. He knew the girl to be a worker inside the bakery, as he always bought his bread there. It was, in fact, the best and freshest bread he ever tasted, so he always boasted. He chatted with her a lot, telling her that someday, she may own that bakery herself.

He looks to his left and sees another friend – Morton, the only son of the owner of the sundries store, and one of his best friends. After his father's death, Gerald had always looked to Morton for support.

"Hello, Mort! Good day today, huh?" Gerald greeted, as Morton looked up from where he was sweeping their store's front.

"Hey, Gerald! It HAS been good the past few days," Morton replied as he continued to sweep the front of his father's store.

"Well, if you're looking for me, I'm just going to walk around outside the town. I need to get my mind; get some thinking rest…"

"Go ahead, it will do you some good," he replies back as he watches Gerald go in the direction of the entrance gates of Palm Brinks.

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Outside, alone and in his lonesome, the smiles he has given his friends were easily taken away. Inside, he knew his friends would only pity him if he continued to look sad. So he did his best… to smile.

But however hard one tries, it's never so easy to lose a parent. He looks to his father's pendant again, trying to figure out the meaning of it all.

"You said this pendant was so important, father… that it bred the insanity that caused many nations to rise and fall… an artifact so powerful, it causes greed among men…"

He looks up to the sky, and a lone tear falls from his cheek as he closed his eyes.

"Oh, father… I'd rather the world be thrown in to chaos than to have lost you…"

"A selfish wish. Are you really the new keeper of the Atlamillia?" a voice from behind him suddenly speaks.

He turns around, and sees a boy and a girl of his age, staring at him and the bright red stone that he wore around his neck. They wore strange clothing, but what concerned him most was that they were carrying weapons.

"Hello, young man," one of the two strangers smirked. "We're here for your Atlamillia."

**To be continued…**

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**NEXT CHAPTER:** Are the two strangers friends or foes? Because if they were friends, then they went about their greeting the wrong way. And if they are foes… well, that's to be expected. But what do the two strange visitors have in store for Gerald and his future?

**The Several:** _Well? What do you think? Write me a review, because I'm not a mind reader! Go ahead, it won't kill you!_


	2. The EverChanging Present

**DC2: A PREVIOUS PAST**

A _Dark Cloud 2 _Fanfic

**Chapter 2: The Ever-Changing Present----**

By The Several

**The Several:** I saw your comment, **Pug Dragon**. Whoops, sorry! I forgot to mention that Pug Dragon's fanfic, **An Unmentioned Coupling**,was the inspiration to my story. _Ahem!_ (reads from script) Pug Dragon. Is. The. One. Who. Started. All. Of. This… Without. Pug Dragon. I. Wouldn't. Have. Written. This. Fanfic. At. All... Pug Dragon. Is. The… (wait, what is this? Oww! Okay, okay!)… Is. The. Greatest. Everything. Ever. (did I read this right?)

There! I wrote your recognition of power! Don't burn me!

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"What?" Gerald asks in surprise.

"You heard us. We want the Atlamillia," said the male stranger in reply.

'_Is this what father warned me about? The greedy ones who wanted the stone?'_ Gerald thought as the strangers came closer. "There's no way you're getting your hands on this!"

The female stranger then spoke: "Oh, don't worry. You're coming with us." With a quick dash, the nameless girl poised to take the stone from him. Gerald was too taken by surprise to evade that the stranger was able to get her hands on the Atlamillia.

But at that moment, the stone flashed and flashed with the brightness of the sun, surprising both Gerald and the two strangers. In an instant, the female attacker was strongly repelled back, as if a force field suddenly enveloped the boy and his father's stone.

The male stranger smirked. "…So it's the real thing."

The female looked at her hand that touched the stone, as she felt like it was lightly burnt. "It would appear so. The same thing happened to me when I touched yours."

"Yours?" Gerald asks confusingly.

The male stranger nodded at Gerald, as he shows a similar stone with a blue color. Gerald gasps in shock and awe.

"A… Another Atlamillia?"

"That's right," replied the female stranger. "We hold one of the three Atlamillias. Only the ones chosen by the Atlamillia can touch it. He and you were chosen by the Moon Atlamillias, which is why—"

"--I know exactly how this works now!" Gerald interrupted. "Since you can't touch my stone, then there's absolutely no way you can get it! I'm not going to give up my father's stone!"

The male stranger sighed to his female partner. "We have no time for this…"

The female stranger replied, "You should have known it wasn't going to be so easy."

"Which is why we're going to have to take him with us!" the nameless man replies as he dashes over to Gerald. "As a chosen one, I also have the power to touch your Atlamillia! So you're going to have to come with us forcefully… conscious or not!"

His attacker tries to hit him in the face to knock him down, but as he was expecting an attack this time, he quickly out-maneuvers him and evades sideways.

"You're pretty fast… So I guess I have to resort to this!" The stranger takes out his knightsword and aims it at Gerald with a clash. With a quick dash, he aims for Gerald's head with the blunt side of his sword to strike him unconscious.

Gerald, unable to block, instead, uses his Atlamillia to block his attack. With a bright red light, the male stranger was thrown away to the ground by the deflecting force field. The stranger tries to get back up, and try again.

"Stop that, you two!" said the strange girl as she got in-between them. "We have no time for this!"

"How do you suggest we handle this then?" asked her partner as he crossed his arms.

"I'll handle this," she says as she walks closer to Gerald.

"Stay back!" Gerald shouts at her as he backs off step by step.

"Please… Don't run away," she tried to reply as softly as she could. "We can explain."

"You're friend there tried to knock me out with his sword and you have the nerve to try and explain?"

The girl looks back at her partner, as he was still groggy from the Atlamillia's deflection. She looks back to Gerald and says, "He's not usually like that. He's just… frustrated."

"You and me both," Gerald sighed. "Alright… I'll hear whatever you have to say."

"Good!" the girl replied, much cheerful than she was before. "Now… First off, we're from the future."

"….."

"……"

"….That's it! I'm outta here!" Gerald stomps off.

"No, wait! I'm serious!" replies the girl desperately.

Gerald looks back to her. "And how can you prove that? Hmmm?"

"We can't prove that right now. Not yet."

Gerald felt insulted far enough and starts to walk away again. "Then I guess this discussion's over."

As Gerald walks away, he replies, "I can't believe anyone like you could be so insensitive! I just lost my dad and you want to take his keepsake!… And all that nonsense about the future!… Just leave me alone…"

Before he gets far, the girl stops him by the arm. He looks back as the girl replies, "Please… If you'd allow us, we can prove to you what we claim…"

Gerald thinks about it for a minute, and then sighs. "Alright… I can't resist pretty girls anyway."

He then looks to the two strangers. "At least… tell me your names."

The male stranger stands up and the two nods at each other and introduces themselves.

"My name is Basil, heir to the Reybrandt throne."

"And I'm Elena, an elite from the ChronoCommand."

"And we're here… to change history."

**To be continued…**

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**NEXT CHAPTER:** The two strangers' identities are finally revealed… as Monica's father and Max's mother! How can they prove they're from the future, and what is Gerald's involvement with it?

**The Several:** _I'm not sure if they gave Monica's father an actual name, so I made my own. If anyone knows his real name (if there actually is), please tell me, and I'll change it right away._


	3. A Destined Future

**DC2: A PREVIOUS PAST**

A _Dark Cloud 2 _Fanfic

**Chapter 3: A Destined Future----**

By The Several

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**The Several:** _Whoooh! New year, new chapter! Happy New Year, everyone! At least, I hope it's happy._

_Just to clear out a few misunderstandings, let's call Max's Atlamillia the Red Atlamillia (Gerald's), Monica's the Blue Atlamillia (the one on Basil), and Sirus' is the Orange Atlamillia (I mean, it's orange, right?)._

Time to go on with the story…

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After introducing themselves, Elena and Basil take Gerald to the train station towards Sindain in order to show him proof of their being 'from the future'-ness.

The Blackstone Zero leaves from the Palm Brinks Station, and off to Sindain they journeyed.

Inside, Gerald and the two who claim to be from the future sit calmly inside the train.

"I sure hope you guys aren't lying. Not only will you have wasted my time, but tricking me into giving my late father's stone is the lowest thing I could think of!" Gerald mouths off.

Elena stays silent and doesn't remark to his comment, but Basil has had enough of his continuous ranting. With one hand, he drags Gerald towards a separate train car.

Elena looks up to what they were doing, but Basil looks to her and says, "Don't worry, I won't kill him. Be back in a minute!"

"H-Hey! Let go of me!" Gerald shouts as he tries to break free. Basil drags him to another car, an empty one. There, he rudely lets him go on the ground.

"Hey! Watch it!" Gerald shouts at him as he gets up.

But at that moment, Basil holds him by the collar of his shirt and shouts, "I've just had about enough of your complaining! Look, I know you're frustrated… but so are we!"

Gerald was too intimidated to talk. He keeps quiet as Basil lets him go and looks away. "Your father died? So what? You want sympathy? Normally, it would be given… unless you knew we are also on the same boat…"

Gerald could barely say the words out. "Y…You mean…"

Basil looks at him intensely, but with tears flowing from his eyes. "Yes! Our parents are dead, too! What's worse… they've been murdered!" He looks away, trying to stop the tears with both hands. "My dad… he was killed by an assassin just recently… after he gave me this Atlamillia…"

Gerald kept silent, as he was too stunned and embarrassed to talk.

"And Elena… she never even met her parents before… Her parents died a long time ago… And you have the nerve to ask for pity!"

Gerald was about to say something when Basil said, "Please… I'm just angry… Just… leave me alone for now…"

Gerald says nothing as he leaves, back towards the car where Elena was.

As Gerald enters, Elena looks up surprised. "…Where's Basil?"

"…He's crying in the other car. Says he wants to be alone for a while…"

"Oh…" Elena replies as she looks out the window.

There, at that moment, Gerald saw the way she looks at the window. Her eyes mirror her sadness, but the strength and determination in them was true and real. As a boy who was growing up rich and protected from the terrors of the outside, he could never even imagine how bad she felt or the horrors she had to face.

He didn't know what he felt then, but all he wanted to do at that moment was to tell her how sorry she was. Quietly, he sat beside her. He kept quiet as Elena continued to look out the window, where the sky looked almost orange as dawn arrived to their mark.

"Um… Basil said that… you never even met your parents…" Gerald spoke slowly. He felt like such a jerk to ask such a question, but he wanted to know.

"Yeah…" Elena looked at him as she tried to smile. "But it's better than losing your parents when you're conscious or old enough to know about it."

"But that's better than not having to feel your parents at all…" Gerald replied. Elena looked down to her lap, as she could not think of any answer.

"I guess…we're both unlucky…" Elena replied chokingly, as if invisible tears fell down her eyes. Gerald could see that she tried to be strong, but sometimes no strength is ever enough…

Gerald takes her hand by surprise and says, "…Your hand's a little burnt! Is it because of when you tried to take my Atlamillia?"

"Yes… Don't worry, it doesn't hurt that much…" Elena calmly replies.

But despite her words, Gerald gently massages her hands to make her feel better. They both blush a little, as he felt her hand in his, and his in hers…

"I'm…I'm sorry…" Gerald said slowly, feeling unworthy to ask for forgiveness.

"It's alright…" Elena replied. "And thank you… for making me feel better."

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The train slows down as it reaches one of its destinations: Sindain Station. Once coming to a full halt, Gerald, Basil, and Elena come off and went in the direction of Jurak Library.

"So… what's this thing you wanted to show me?" Gerald asks as they enter the gigantic library.

The Jurak Library… a collection of mystical tomes and everyday books from the funnies to the enchanted spell books. In its center is where the great wise sage-tree Jurak resides, an all-knowing foundation that dates back to the beginnings.

Inside the age-old library, Gerald follows the two travelers through a dark room in the far back that he had not previously known had existed.

Several minutes pass, down the stairs to who-knows-where, Gerald sees a bright glowing object at the distance. Elena and Basil step aside to let Gerald through and see the strange object up closer.

Basil smirks as Gerald looks in amazement at the sight he beheld. "This, Gerald… is the evidence we speak."

It was nothing like he had ever seen. A mystical red rune that was obviously ethereal. He felt the magical energies that flowed through it, as though it seemed to almost… call him.

He takes a few steps back, not sure what to do. As he does, Elena and Basil walk towards the device and step inside its circle.

"This is a Time Gate, Gerald. Don't be afraid. Step inside, and see what's in store for your future," Elena calmly speaks.

Gerald gulps as reluctance takes over. Finally able to force himself, he steps inside, and…

"Nothing's happening," Gerald says, almost disappointed. Almost.

Then suddenly, a bright red flash emits from his Atlamillia. He covers his eyes, as he hears his two companions mutter: "So it begins…"

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Gerald takes his arms from covering his eyes. And as he opens them, he could barely breath enough to take all of it in.

He gasps at the sight he beheld. The world… of a hundred years since.

**To be continued…**

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**NEXT CHAPTER:** Gerald arrives in the future, a hundred years from his time. What sight did he see that held him breathless? Is it a good future that he was amazed at… or a horrific destruction that held him in horror? What does this have to do with Gerald?

**The Several:** _Whoo! Haven't updated in quite a while. I'm going to stop here for the moment to continue my other one that's not finished yet. And I've only received reviews from two people. _PLEASE REVIEW! _I want to know what you think!_


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